Table of Contents

Copyright 2010 Andrew Fox. This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright.All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. These sites have permission to host this guide:

1.0 (10/31/2010): Wow, I can't believe I wrote this in one day. Wrote the basic parts of the guide with the first version. Kangaskhan, Weaville, Ampharos, Kadabra/Alakazam, and Gengar added to the awesome pokemon list.

1.1 (11/1/2010): I noticed errors, and I wanted to add a couple of sections to the guide, including Vaporeon to the awesome pokemon list. Fixed errors (Ghost Ball to Shadow Ball, formatting fail, ect). Added Shadow Ball info to Ka-Zam.

1.2 (11/4/2010): So apparantly I failed, and somewhere along the line I got in my head that Ghost attacks were super-effective against dark. Well I had to fix that, because it absolutely isn't true. I figured while I was here I should add another pokemon to the list of greats, so I will. Tyranitar is now added.

1.25 (12/3/10) So I'm sorry I've been neglecting you guys, but I finally beat Red, so I can start working on my Red guide, which will come out after an elite four guide. I'll link it to here. Anyway, fixed something on Tyranitar, and more formating fails. Took out some language to make this guide more family friendly, since the game is rated E, might as well make it (more) inoffensive.

Hey, what's up guys. Another guide, this one is my first specific one. My girlfriend asked for advice, and I tried helping her, but I can't really do it via text, damn character limits. Note that this is NOT a guide for comptetive battling, I have a life other than gaming. But this will allow you to take on any trainer in the game, and it's mostly designed for the elite four, which is really the only time you need all 6 pokemon to take on different types.

In order to fully take advantage of this guide, you should have beaten the elite four at least once. This unlocks the battle frontier, which allows you to buy many of the TMs again, and also gives you access to most of the move tutors (and the only ones worth using).

Okay, so since I don't really understand how to add an image, so I'll make a table that will serve the same purpose. This is the basic type effectivness table, and there are some on Gamefaqs. The one I like is here:

Dark: Great against Ghost and Psychic, two types that will give you problems. Most pokemon of those two types are fast and have good special defense, plus great special attack. I know about the split, but most of their moves are special moves. Anyway, a dark pokemon that is fast can not only get dark moves, but it gets STAB (Same Type Attack boost), which multiplies the power of attacks of the pokemon's types by 1.5. So Crunch, (Base Power 80) on a dark pokemon gets an initial power of 120 (80 * 1.5). That helps a lot.

Ice: This is one of the best types, as it hits Dragons x2 damage. Ice pokemon are also good against Grass, Flying, and Ground pokemon, but those are easily countered by two or three other types as well. Ice Beam is my favorite special attack, because of the accuracy, and Ice Punch is my prefered physical attack, with a base power of 75, and can be tutored at the Battle Frontier. Many other pokemon can learn these moves too, but an Ice Pokemon will still get STAB.

Ground: Another good type, it's the only type super effective against electric. Since many electric pokemon have Static, which can paralyze on contact, staying with special attacks is the way to go, but Earthquake and Magnitude are the best options for Ground pokemon. With STAB, a Ground pokemon has a base power of 150 on Earthquake. They are also good against Steel, which has a resistance to 11 of the 17 types, and is immune to poison. In addition to these two, it's super effective against Rock, Fire, and Poison.

Normal: With only one weakness, and only ineffective against 2 types (Ghost types are immune), Normals could be the best type in the game. They can learn a variety of moves, including all moves mentioned above (except magnitude). They get STAB on HMs like Strength and Rock Climb, as well as the two most powerful moves in the game; Hyper Beam and Giga Impact. They learn a variety of moves, so you should be sure to have one of them in your party. With the Attack/Special Attack split, you can teach pokemon attacks that are best for them, so a Kangaskhan with Fire Punch uses its more powerful attack stat than its weak special attack.

Bug: Only super-effective against Dark, Grass and Psychic, there are other pokemon that do their jobs better. Psychics will do double damage to part poison types as well. Most Grass pokemon are part poison as well, so they would only take normal damage.

Poison: Only super-effective against Grass, just avoid these useless types.

Flying: All types that it are super effective against are covered by other types, and its not too useful in later stages. On the Fighting Gym, however, you should abuse them.

Electric Only super-effective against two types, it's just not as useful as other types.

Can be obtained on Refreshing Field in the PokeWalker, which is unlocked by default, this is a powerhouse, with great attack stats. Learns Mega Punch early on, which is powerful early, and Crunch, which is a powerful Dark move. It can learn both Strength and Rock Climb, which are equally good attacks, but should only know one. Outrage is a powerful Dragon type attack, with a base power of 120, important because it can destroy a Dragon Type pokemon. Also can learn the three elemental punches (Ice, Fire, Thunder).

What an amazing pokemon. You can get a Mareep early on, and can also catch them throughout Johto, as well as Flaafy. Ampharos learns some good moves that help it diversify itself from other electrics, and it doesn't even need TMs or Tutors. Signal Beam is a bug move with base power of 70, 100 accuracy, and a 10% chance of confusion. Power Gem is a base power 70, 100 accuracy rock-type move that gives it advantages over Fire, Bug, and Ice. With those two moves and an electric type move, it has super-effectiveness against Water, Flying, Psychic, Dark, Fire, Bug, and Grass types.

The evolved form of Sneasel, this will not be possible to obtain until after the first trip through the elite four without trading. You must get 48 BP from the battle frontier and buy a Razor Claw, then equip it with Sneasel. Level it up at night, and you get a Weaville.

Weaville is a Dark/Ice pokemon, which means the Elite Four will WEAP when they see this. Good against Psychic, Ghost, and Dragon pokemon, you can almost tank the elite four with only Weaville... except for Bruno, which it has a X4 weakness to all of his pokemon. But against Will and Lance, Weaville will have a field day.

Because Sneasel is only obtainable at level 41 plus, there are some things you will have to do to get it to it's maximum potential. You can try and breed it, then raise it high enough to learn the moves it uses best, Ice Punch and Night Slash.

Since neither Sneasel or Weaville can learn Ice Punch through levels, you will need to either breed it with a pokemon that does, or teach it Ice Punch from the move tutors at the Battle Frontier. WEAVILLE CANNOT LEARN ICE PUNCH! You must teach it Ice Punch before it evolves. Since it takes enough time to get the 48 points for the Razor Claw, it might be easier to breed it with a Hitmonchan.

Night Slash is easier. You need to either evolve it before it learns the move (Level 35) or get a Heart Scale and use the Move Relearner in Blackthorn. In addition, Slash is also learned by both Sneasel and Weaville through leveling up, which has the increased crit chance, and is normal, so it is a good basic move. For the final move, I prefer Brick Break, as it gives it more type effectiveness, adding Rock, Steel, and Normal to its super-effective types. If it doesn't learn Brick Break, it's not the end of the world.

You could also just do what I did for this one, which is get a Sneasel, teach it Ice Punch, evolve it, then teach it Night Slash. Lazy route, and it won't be as powerful as a bred one.

It really doesn't matter if you can't get an Alakazam, but it will be stronger. I will from here on refer to this one as Ka-zam, and a Kadabra could be substituted if, like me, none of your friends will trade with you.

Obviously Psychic is the prefered psychic move, but a surprising move I like on mine is Shock Wave. It DOUBLES your effectiveness, adding Flying and Water. It has 60 power and WILL NOT MISS. Another helpful one is Energy Ball. It adds Ground and Rock to the effectivness. That's 6 different types from what is normally a psychic-only type pokemon. Shadow Ball allows it to be super-effective against Psychic, and Ghost pokemon, but since and Ghost pokemon have the type advantage, it really isn't worth it (although psychics would have a hard time damaging your pokemon while you destroy it).

Moves to Know:

Psychic: Just a hugely powerful attack.

Energy Ball: If only one or the other, this would also add water, and is stronger against water than Shock Wave.

This is a very powerful pokemon you can get early. It is more helpful in the long run than the other evolutions of eevees, especially if you didn't get Totodile. it learns bite at level 29, which is a little late for when you need it (Euctreak Gym), and it doesn't learn any damaging water moves between water gun and hydro pump. However, you get surf soon after the fourth gym, which is the best move it can learn (debatably). It learns Aurora Beam around the final gym, and can learn Ice Beam and Blizzard, sadly only through TMs

For it to be max stats, evolve it at level one by breeding an eevee/other evolution with a ditto, then using a water stone on it to get a vaporeon. It's special attack will grow at double the rate every level, as will it's HP. The main downside it has stat-wise, is its slow speed. It has only average speed, with many members of the elite four having fast pokemon. But with its high hp and special defense, it can be an effective tank and take a hit or two while you heal.

Move-wise, it is a wierd pokemon. It learns Water Gun at 15 and then no other water moves until level 71 (Hydro Pump) other than Aqua Ring, a HP-Restoring move. It learns many status moves, like Sand Attack and Haze, but very few moves useful for speeding through the elite four. So, in order to own their asses, you will have to resort to TM/HMing this bitch.

First off, you get two VERY useful moves around the fourth gym. Surf (obviously useful) is unlocked after this gym, which is easy to spot. However, what many people do not realize is that Vaporeon can learn Shadow Ball, the TM gotten from Morty after you beat him in Euktreak. It gives Vaporeon a special attack that is super effective against Ghosts, Psychics, and Darks, the last two of whom have trainers dedicated to their types in the elite four. Aurora Beam is ice type, and will hurt Dragons a ton, but in order to truly be effective you need ice beam, which in and of itself takes longer to get than training you Vaporeon to 100. It is not the end of the world if Vaporeon doesn't learn it however. If you do want it to be better though, Blizzard with PP UPs is a good alternative.

Not really recommended too much, but it can single-handedly take down the entire elite four, and probably do a number on Lance as well. If you do want to use Gengar, even not for the elite four, teach it Psychic and Sludge Bomb. Energy Ball would be a good move too.

Moves to Know: These four moves will give it the most types it can take on with only special attacks (9 of 17 types!!!)

As someone pointed out, I was wrong on when you can catch Larvitar. You can catch it in the safari zone after the second challenge during the morning and day, but that's all I know about that. But if you're really too lazy to do that, get one off the GTS or wait til Mt. Silver. Or get a friend to help you. Whatever you decide, just get the damn thing, cause it is amazing. It starts as a Rock/Ground, which makes it immune to electric, but unfortunately Tyranitar is Rock/Dark. So it loses both that immunity to electric attacks and bug attacks deal normal damage (negating the rock resistance) and fighting becomes 4x effective, but it gains an immunity to Psychic moves, and the water and grass weaknesses are halved (only do double damage) but it loses the weakness to ice, and a rock move would actually be strong against them.

Now the hard part on Tyranitar is the fact that it has so many good moves, you don't know which ones to choose. That's where I come in :D. First off, if a pokemon can learn Earthquake, god dammit teach it Earthquake, especially when it learns it leveling up. Crunch follows the same rule as earthquake, especially on a dark pokemon that has immunity to psychics. Ice punch is always a good idea, since that now gives it an advantage over ground, grass, dragon, and flying. Then teach it Brick Break or Superpower (your choice) and it adds Dark, Ice, and Normal to its list. It is now super effective against Electric, Fire, Poison, Rock, Ground, Psychic, Ghost, Steel, Grass, Dragon, Flying, Dark, Ice, and Normal.

02: Dragon Claw - A desperate move, its really only useful against dragons, but is quite powerful. Only really useful on something like Zangoose.

13: Ice Beam - With decent power and 100 accuracy, this is a very good move. However, in an attempt to prevent us from "buying" Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, and Flamethrower, the coin system was re done, and you CANNOT buy coins. With those three moves costing 10,000 each, it's nearly impossible to get this TM. But if you really want to get an advantage, it is well worth it. Or you can try breeding with something that knows it.

22: Solar Beam - Powerful Grass move, team it up with Sunny Day for annihilation of water/grass/rock teams.

23: Iron Tail - Gotten from the Olivine Gym, this is a powerful but only somewhat accurate Steel move. If you wanna use Steel, this is a good move.

24: Thunderbolt - somewhat powerful and quite accurate electric move, unfortunately same syndrome as Ice Beam. Can be found in the Cerulean Cave as well.

25: Thunder - For 5,500 money, you can get this move in Goldenrod. It is meh accurate and quite powerful, but it does have 10 PP, unlike Fire Blast, Hydro Pump and Blizzard.

26: Earthquake - 100 Power and Accuracy? Sign me up! Found in Victory Road, or buy TM for 80 BP in the Battle Frontier.

28: Dig - For those that can't learn Earthquake, this is an 80 power move, but does cause physical contact, so use against a pokemon with an ability that needs physical contact is ill-advised.

29: Psychic - 90 power, 100 accuracy, gives advantages over fighting and poison pokemon, both of which have trainers dedicated to them in the Elite Four. Great move.

30: Shadow Ball - A ghost type move that can be bought in the Battle Frontier for 64 points, it gives a pokemon advantages over Ghosts and Psychics. Psychics also have types dedicated to them in the Elite Four.

31: Brick Break - Decent power and great accuracy, adds Normal, Steel, Rock, Ice, and Dark to the super effectivness.

34: Shock Wave - 60 power, but will not miss. Decently powerful move, can be effective if used correctly.

47: Steel Wing - May be useful, but since you must have wings (hence the name) to use the attack, and it's really only good against Rock and Ice, both of which are super-effective against it, might not be the best move. Like I said, can be useful however.

53: Energy Ball - Good power, Great accuracy, and only 64 points at the battle frontier.

59: Dragon Pulse - If you can get it on a non-dragon pokemon, then it's worth it. Otherwise, just pass. Better than Dragon Claw, also a special move, but there are better moves.

65: Shadow Claw - basically a physical version of Shadow Ball. Same power and accuracy, but in addition has a high crit rate.

79: Dark Pulse - Good if you can't do shadow ball, but shadow ball is easier to get the TM of.

These two moves are very similar, and it depends on how risky you want to be. If you are willing to take a little more of a risk, Rock Climb has 10 more power than Strength, but is 15% less accurate. If you don't want to risk it, Strength is the way to go.

In Diamond and Pearl, the developers split attack and special attack. That means that an attack that uses the body uses the attack stat, and an attack that doesn't uses the user's body uses special. It used to be all moves of the type were either attack or special. Fire was special, Fighting attack, ect. Now it depends. So check to make sure it uses whichever stat you want, if the little symbol is red and yellow, it's a physical attack. If it's purple and white, it's special, and white and gray is a status attack (uses neither).

Obviously you need to train to get better. Pokemon is an extremely strategic game, and there are features that require online resources and a little effort, but it's well worth it. If the pros use it, it probably works.

EV training is helpful. It allows you to train your pokemon's stats specifically. For more use this guide.

It also mentions IVs and Natures, which both affect growth, but you can't control those so I won't cover them. Anyway, they allow you to train certain spots. I will specifically cover certain spots for Attack, Special Attack, and Speed later. I will also cover where to train solely for Exp.

I keep mentioning this place because it is one of the most useful places if you want to have an elite four sweeping team. You can get a lot of useful TMs here, and a lot of other useful moves are taught through the move tutors. However, it is difficult to earn enough points to get all the stuff you want, and it takes hours just to ge the good TMs, and ones like Earthquake take days. The ways I would recommend earning points are the Battle Hall and Battle Factory.

The Battle Hall is a one v one event where you get to choose the types you fight. You fight 10 battles, win 'em, get one BP. But, this isn't where you get all the points. After a 40 win streak, you get 2 BP. After 49 wins, the boss challenges you, and if you beat him, you get 20 BP. But even better is the combined win streak rewards.

The game tracks your highest win streak with each pokemon. It adds them all up

As I stated before, this will not let you compete in competitive battles, but it will allow you to be the elite four. Tried and tested by me, the Rock. I just hope this helps you.

Thanks to:

Gamefreak, for making this game.

Nintendo, for producing it.

My girlfriend, for giving me the idea to write this.

Gamefaqs, for hosting this guide, and other guides that helped me gather the info quickly

Pokedex app for iPhone: referenced them a couple times too.

William Leber, Kevin Zhang, and Daryl Lansdown: for pointing out errors in the guide, including a couple key ones that could really have screwed you guys over.

If you want to contact me, andrewmf23 (a) gmail (.) com. Put Pokemon Training guide in the subject, or I will delete it/ignore it. If you want to help, include Gamefaqs username so I can give you credit. Please do not ask me to rate teams. I told you what good moves are in the game above, check from that. Plus, if you can't figure out what a good team is without someone else's help, well, that's what the guide is for. I am sure the forums can help you out with this too. If I answered everyone who asked me to rate their team, I wouldn't be able to live my life. Yes, it's only been out a week, but I've had THAT MANY people ask me.